A service of Salisbury University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Virginia School Mulling Replacing Name of Segregationist

official photo

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A school board is studying whether to rename a Henrico middle school named after one of the architects of a set of policies that aggressively pushed back against court-ordered integration of public schools in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Washington Post reports that the Henrico County school board on Thursday directed Superintendent Patrick C. Kinlaw to study the financial impact of changing the name of Harry F. Byrd Middle School after several people spoke in favor of the change.

Byrd, a former state senator and governor, signed on to the Southern Manifesto opposing the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling that struck down school segregation. Byrd later spearheaded the Massive Resistance movement, a term that included legal maneuvering to prevent black children from entering white schools.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.